Thank you, @macklemore & @ryanlewis, for “#SameLove”!

I’m at home doing whatever I’m doing (most likely this) and a friend calls up and asks if I’ve heard this song “Same Love,” a rap song that not only isn’t homophobic (they say the rap community is notoriously so), but it’s also actually about gay marriage and how great it is.

I can’t believe my ears.

Granted, I’m not really familiar with rap, other than the mainstays like Snoop, but the little that I do know, it hasn’t ever been represented as a paragon of niceness toward women or gays.

I ask who it is.

“This guy Macklemore!”
“Who?”

I mean no insult to Macklemore, none at all, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I was hoping it was someone I’d heard of because that meant that the notion of accepting gay marriage had penetrated deeper (not intended) into popular culture than I’d thought and hoped.

Then I heard the song.

Holy shit it was tight (no I don’t actually talk like that)! And sure enough, it was all about the “let’s just chill the fuck out about this whole gay-marriage thing, shall we?”.

I was totally into it until those last lines. And kind of only because I find it confusing. Is Macklemore saying that the Bible is right except in this case? Was this a Christian rap song? And if so I honestly don’t give a damn. Constructive sentiments are constructive sentiments.

I read an interview.

I don’t feel like finding it and quoting it, so you’ll just have to trust me (unless you don’t want to). In it, Macklemore basically said that he wasn’t religious and he was referring to the notion of whatever god or holiness people wanted to imagine.

Hmmm. Okay.

So why even bring it up, then? Especially because later on in the song he goes on about hate poisoning holy water. That’s not exactly a subtle reference.

I’m wondering if Macklemore is more asking for consistent morality from the religious rather than these declared absolutes (God is love, gay marriage is bad) that all seem to conflict.

Even if Macklemore isn’t saying that and he is saying that the god he believes in is one of love and all that sort of wishy-washy spiritual stuff that left-leaners tend to say a lot, I’m glad he’s saying what he’s saying and that he’s been damn successful at it.

If you haven’t checked Macklemore and Ryan Lewis out, the site is here and the song is here.